let's say the power's out and you need clean clothes....

[Echo2]

What do you do?

I have an industrial mop bucket....similar to this...



And have had a plunger set aside for it.....



but then a friend showed me this....



just thought I'd share....it's kinda minor....but in the event of SHTF......clean drawers would be a morale booster...:D

I'm going to check the local hardware stores for one....I'll do a AAR if I find one.

made for a 5 gallon bucket....but I like the ringer....:)

[Brother Bill]

We found an old wash tub with the scrubber and wringer at flea market last year. Well worth the $50. On a side note my wife said I'd be doing the laundry if the power ever went out for good.

[Diesel]

whatcha think

http://www.powerlesswashingmachine.com/Home_Page.php

[Diesel]

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le85KjalzwM

for some ideas

http://www.bonanza.com/booths/Harmon..._CRANK_NRANTIQ


http://www.greeniacs.com/GreeniacsGu...g-Machine.html

[PT945]

Another idea for washing single items and unmentionable, is a hand crank icecream maker , someone I know showed me that one.

[Echo2]

The pedal one is cool....takes up some room though.

I am filing the design away in my mental tool box....It could be incorporated to my wanting to hook a recumbent bike to a grain mill....

Or....use one of those small polyethylene concrete mixer buckets....

[Dawg Fan]

Those sure are a lot better than what I had when I was in Iraq back in the original Gulf War. We got 1 bucket. We had to borrow someone elses bucket and use 1 for soapy water and the other for clean water to rinse. We had to wash all laundry by hand. Of course then we had to wring the water out by hand. Usually then after we got all the laundry hung up to dry a dadgum sandstorm would kick up and ruin it all to heck!

[Diesel]

I'm starting to see quite a few realistic uses for a recumbant bike as well, grain mill, laundry, generating emergency power

[Echo2]

The only thing I see that may become an issue with it....is the fact that it burns up valuable caloric intake....but priorities I feel would make themselves known fairly quickly...

[Diesel]

obviously cleaning clothes in this way would not be a priority if you could not eat ;) But I do agree

[coxmw]

Trash bag or bucket, some soap worked for me on FTX and camps.

[Echo2]

A stream works.....just looking for a bit more stationary....easy to use...

[Applejack]

remember the old wash boards. They would also work. Leman's has a lot of non-electic items that are great, but I am looking to find these items used if possible. they do have the wash plunger though also for anyone still looking for one.
Applejack

[RICHFL]

You need to go back in history about 100 years ago. Say 1911:

Mondays was the day for family laundry. The largest kettle would be put on a fire to heat the water. Homemade lye (Made from wood ash) along with laundry soap would be used in a metal tub (5 gal) and a scrubbing board. The women folk would start with the less dirty items first washing and piling up a load of clean but soapy clothing. Wash water would be replaced as needed thru out the wash cycle. Then women would take each piece of clothing and twist it to remove as much of the soapy water as possible. The wash tub would now be filled with cold fresh water to rinse the clothing. After rinsing all the clothing; again they would twist the clothing. removing as much water as possible. This took all day long for a small family of 4 people with 1 change of clothing per week would take over 6 hours of hard labor. Most farm families were not small but stood at 6-10 kids. Why because the farm needed the hands to do the work.

By 1920 ladies were using a pressing tool (with 2 rollers one on top of another) to remove the water. Most families did not get am electrical washing machine until the mid 1950's.

So remember that your great grand mothers did this every week from the time they were about 9 years old until most had died in their 60's.

[101airborne]

Hmmmm........ something I really haven't thought about. I guess I need to dig that old wringer washer out of storage, I have several Gennys and the smallest one will easily run it. We have a clothes line that we use in warm weather for towels and stuff to dry em'